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US 9,067,676 B1Granted
Convertible helicopter ring member
AssigneeBell Helicopter Textron Inc.
InventorsJ. Donn Hethcock, Mark E. Dreier, Dudley Smith, Robert Lee Robinson
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A convertible helicopter ring member includes a ring member and a drive mechanism. The drive mechanism orients the ring member substantially in-plane with a tail rotor of a helicopter during a first mode of helicopter operation and orients the ring member substantially off-plane with the tail rotor of the helicopter during a second mode of helicopter operation that is different from the first mode.
Claims20
A helicopter ring member comprising:
- a ring member comprising an inner circumference, the ring member to be oriented substantially in-plane with a tail rotor of a helicopter during a first mode of helicopter operation, wherein the first mode of helicopter operation is a hover mode, the ring member to be oriented substantially off-plane with the tail rotor of the helicopter during a second mode of helicopter operation that is different from the first mode.
A ring wing system for a helicopter, the system comprising:
- a ring member;
- and
- a drive mechanism to orient the ring member substantially in-plane with a tail rotor of a helicopter during a first mode of helicopter operation and to orient the ring member substantially off-plane with the tail rotor of the helicopter during a second mode of helicopter operation that is different from the first mode, wherein the second mode of helicopter operation is a flight mode.
A method of operating a helicopter, the method comprising:
- orienting a helicopter ring member attached to a tail boom of a helicopter to be substantially in-plane with a tail rotor of a helicopter during a first mode of helicopter operation, wherein the first mode of helicopter operation is a hover mode;
- and
- in response to input, orienting the helicopter ring member to be substantially off-plane with the tail rotor of the helicopter during a second mode of helicopter operation.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.